Following the Trim Healthy Mama plan? I'm loosely following the plan (please don't ask how often I fail!). But I'm learning that there are a few things that can make or break my success. If I don't keep the pantry stocked with food and things that make following the plan simple then I'm more likely to succumb to temptation. So, I (try!) to have a few 'default' quick meals or snacks always on hand. (Scroll down to the bottom for links to some printable resource lists.)

Another thing that can make staying on plan easy is organizing your Trim Healthy Mama book. It's nice to quickly flip to what you need, a great recipe or food list. Let's take a look at how I organize my book!

Organize your Trim Healthy Mama book

I love how Gwen suggested using post-it tabs to mark the important sections. So, I borrowed her idea and decided which pages and sections to mark that would be the most helpful. Besides recipes, it's a good idea to mark the fuel source pages and food lists and a few sections in the appendix. Let's take a look at how I tabbed my Trim Healthy Mama book!

Tabs across the top of the book

First off, I tabbed the fuel sources - large square post-its for the main 2 and then smaller tabs for the 'relatives'. I also tabbed the 1 week fuel cycle, supplements, faq's, recipe index, and notes:

Satisfying Meal, page 65 (and I made a note about keeping bread products to 6g net carbs and total carbs to less than 10g)

Energizing Meal, page 77 (with a note to keep added fat to less than 5g)

"S" Helper, page 91

Crossover, page 95

Fuel Pull, page 103

1 Week Fuel Cycle, page 429

Supplements, page 581

FAQ's, page 591

Recipe Index, page 609

Notes, page 621

Before moving on, I grabbed 2 highlighters and went back through the Satisfying & Energizing sections, highlighting the fuel sources (in separate colors). This is so helpful to know which foods you need to limit when you're eating the other fuel source. Make sense?

Indexing the recipe sections

I decided to color-coordinate each recipe section, so it would be easier to flip to the recipes I wanted. I ended up doing 3 'rows' of tabs, outlined below.

Row 1 - the breakfast sections in green, then baked goods in blue, and lunches in purple. Row 2 - it was back to the top the dinner & side dish recipes in green. Row 3 - desserts and snacks in blue, sauces & condiments in purple, and cultured recipes & earth milk in green. (see the picture above for a snapshot of how this looked.)

Specific pages:

Breakfast - eggs, page 215

Breakfast - grains, page 223

Breakfast - smoothies, page 241

Breakfast - yogurt, page 249

Baked goods - muffins, page 255

Baked goods - breads, page 265

Baked goods - pizza, page 275

Lunches - salmon, page 283

Lunches - soups, page 289

Lunches - sandwiches, page 297

Lunches - salads, page 301

Lunches - odds & ends, page 307

Dinner - crock pot, page 309

Dinner - oven dishes, page 317

Dinner - stove top, page 327

Dinner - skillet stuff, page 339

Dinner - Mexican meals, page 347

Dinner - pasta ideas, page 349

Dinner - vegetable sides, page 353

Dessert, page 365

Snacks - savory & crunchy, page 391

Snacks - sweet, page 399

Snacks - dips, page 403

Snack ideas, page 407

Sauces & Condiments, page 411

Cultured recipes, page 415

Earth Milk, page 425

There you go - my long list of pages to tab for easy use! Is your book all tabbed and marked up too?